Note: All images are of playtest art and not final. All image credits: Craig Allen, 4 PARA.
Volume 3 of Fields of Fire brings three campaigns featuring The British Army – the Battle of Arnhem in 1944, the Falklands War in 1982, and Helmand Province, Afghanistan in 2008.
[links to previous InsideGMT articles: Episode 1 – Arnhem and Episode 2 – Falklands]
In the early hours of January 1st, 1959, Cuban president Fulgencio Batista fled into exile, ending nearly a decade of dictatorial rule in Cuba. The 26th of July Movement immediately began to seize control, and a week later Fidel Castro arrived triumphantly in Havana, having completed a victorious march along the whole length of the island. In Resisting Revolution, the new Government faction begins in a strong but fragile position, seeking to consolidate their popular support and rebuild the war-ravaged Cuban economy. In this article I will outline some key features of the Government faction and their new menu of Operations and Special Activities.
SDHistCon East, 2023
U.S. Naval War College Museum
Newport, Rhode Island
The Newport Skirmish: Notes and Thoughts
First, I want to thank Dave Stiffler for filming and posting these videos:
Miklos Rhode Island Part 1 https://youtu.be/lJFeMXD8N4A
Miklos Rhode Island Part 2 https://youtu.be/7_hE-28q01Y
Miklos Rhode Island Part 3 https://youtu.be/chADvoWGAu8
Miklos Rhode Island Part 4 https://youtu.be/WkoXVLtJuQ0
Miklos Turkey Hill Part 1 https://youtu.be/ez4_81EPR5o
Miklos Turkey Hill Part 2 https://youtu.be/kBCE0b7ToJA
Miklos Turkey Hill Part 3 https://youtu.be/eznRIkCSLfw
I didn’t know he was doing that. I occasionally saw him pointing his phone at me but assumed he was taking some still shots. I hope you enjoy hearing the story as much as I enjoyed telling it.
We were blessed with good weather. As late as the night before, we were concerned that we might have to cancel because of the threat of thunderstorms in the middle of the day. Overcast and damp when we started, and it was sunny when we finished as you can plainly see in the final video installments.
We were so fortunate to have several members of the local battlefield restoration committee at Butts Hill Fort where we began our tour. They added granular detail to the story and led small groups around the fieldworks. They were prepping for a Centennial celebration the next day which was just plain good luck for us. They were very gracious, and I know our folks were grateful for that added experience.
New rules for Illusions of Glory 2nd Edition are available for your view. (Go to this link). The rules have been clarified with respect to:
The 19th century is the age of British hegemony. This hegemony was expressed in terms of economic development, territorial expansion, diplomatic influence, and the capacity to project military power anywhere on the globe. In 1880 the British Empire was by far the largest in the world, including the vast territories of India, Canada, and Australia, as well as key bases straddling the oceans, which allowed Britain to supply its coal-fuelled navy and ensure the protection of its far-flung Empire. The City of London was the financial heart of the developed world, and the British Navy was bigger than that of the two following powers combined.
France in 1880 was also a first-class economic power and Paris was undoubtedly the cultural capital of the world, but the country was still reeling from its defeat in the Franco-Prussian war of 1870, which had left deep wounds in French national pride. The Third Republic, established after the abdication of Napoleon III and lasting until the French debacle in World War II, was characterised by political strife and instability. Many in France saw colonial expansion as a necessary balm to recover lost prestige and unify the country in an external venture, as they bided their time until they could take revenge on the new German Empire.
The recently unified German Reich was the youngest power in Europe, but it had demonstrated its military prowess by destroying the supposedly formidable French Imperial Army in a short campaign and capturing the French Emperor, Napoleon III, in the encirclement battle of Metz. The German Empire had prioritized European expansion and Bismarck was at first indifferent to building an overseas empire, an endeavour he considered expensive and of doubtful use. Bismarck’s priority was to build an alliance system that would isolate France and ensure peace in Europe under the terms imposed after the French defeat in the Franco-Prussian war. All this changed when Wilhelm II came to the throne with very different ideas. The young Kaiser promptly got rid of the aging Bismarck and embarked on a project of global expansion based on naval power that antagonized Britain. Wilhelm also tied the destiny of the Reich to that of the decaying Austro-Hungarian Empire, at the cost of friendship with Russia, which Bismarck had so carefully cultivated.
The scenario for the Final match was “Howe’s Grand Assault” at White Plains. Father Todd and I each wanted the British and so we bid. It only took one round. He bid zero and so I prevailed with a bid of 1 army morale point. I surrendered it from my at-start morale, and we completed the game set-up. Father Todd rolled for General Washington’s combat modifier and was successful in bringing Washington into the game with a combat DRM of “1” vs. a possible 0. In a classic example of turn-about being fair play, his Militia Attrition die roll yielded the worst possible outcome and he had to remove seven militia counters from his deployed forces. The seven units he selected amounted to 1,300 men! The roads to upstate N.Y. and Connecticut must have been clogged with this human flotsam and jetsam as they streamed homeward, wanting nothing to do with His Majesty’s forces. He made his secret die roll to determine his Ruse de Guerre set-up and we drew our starting hand of two Opportunity Cards each. We were ready to start playing. It was 10:00 AM.
As “Infernal Machine: Dawn of Submarine Warfare” moves toward publication, it has been my task to research the backgrounds of those who made up the crews of the “fishboats.”
I am fascinated by the amount of information that is still available on many of these individuals. Census records gathered before, during and after the American Civil War are very informative. When combined with newspaper reports, tax documentation, church attendance records, even civil and criminal arrest warrants, the gathered information will, as Shakespeare once said, “Hold the mirror up to nature.”
The 19th century was not only a century of intense political and economic change, but also great intellectual and ideological oppositions which sustained and accompanied them. The French Revolution moved the Enlightenment ideals from a handful of intelligentsia salons to the center of the political landscape across Europe, and as it did so new counter revolutionary and anti-Enlightenment ideas rose in opposition.
Indeed, the wars of the Revolution and the Empire were significant as much for plunging Europe into intellectual turmoil as for their military implications. After Napoleon was defeated in 1814 and 1815, it was the hope of the crowned heads of Europe that the Congress of Vienna could mark the end of these ideas as it ended the wars, but even through the repression and censorship that marked the postwar era, the new ideas kept on progressing among all parts of the population. It was from this ferment that the premises of modern ideologies such as nationalism and socialism arose.
We tied our third-best attendance record for Battles of the American Revolution at the WBC this year with 31 players participating. Among those were eight new, unrated players which speaks to the continued popularity of the series. Also participating this year were six of the top ten AREA rated players which made for good leavening within the field.
I conducted a scheduled demo (since AGM Rob “Cappy” McCracken was an unfortunate late-scratch and couldn’t attend) as well as two 1:1 tutorial for individuals who couldn’t make the demo. Among these folks, two showed up to play.
We ran six Heats to qualify eight players for the single elimination quarterfinals. In-all, 52 separate games of BoAR were played from Heat #1 through to the Final match. It was a long week for those players who committed wholeheartedly to the event, including the three players who had selected BoAR as their WBC team game. On the other hand, the Swiss-Heat format provided others with maximum flexibility to come and go as their overall schedules allowed. It was a nice mix.
Hi to the followers of the development of my game Tanto Monta. There are several of you who have asked me why the game is called “Tanto Monta” and not “Tanto monta, monta tanto”; so I have decided to explain everything around this and I hope I know how to answer the question.
Both expressions have their depth and justification in the history of the period that the game relates and that has come down to our time. The title of the game has its origin in the expression that Ferdinand first, then Isabella, adopted for their joint monarchy and this is recorded in many writings and remains of the time. Ferdinand, as king of the Crown of Aragon, adopted this personal motto as his own, alluding to the Gordian knot that Alexander the Great cut instead of untying: “it’s as easy to cut as it is to untie”. In other words, no matter how it is done, the important thing is that it is achieved. And indeed this motto was presented on the arrows, with a loose string (cut) around it.
However, the monarchy of the couple Ferdinand and Isabella is articulated as a monarchical union where both monarchs are of the 2 kingdoms, Castile and Aragon and consequently act on them; although the character of involvement of Ferdinand in the affairs of Castile is more marked than Isabella in those of Aragon. In the end this was translated in an impression of the citizenship that both she and he were in charge, and that together with the motto of Fernando ended up becoming dual, inverting the order indicating that both had decision in the reign and from there the well-known popular motto “tanto monta, monta tanto Isabel como Fernando” (both Isabel and Ferdinand are so much alike) being reduced to “Tanto monta, monta tanto monta”.
In the game I used the popular motto to name the third natal card of the Spanish player because it is a powerful card that can be used indistinctly with both Aragonese and Castilian units, thus departing from the norm of the rest of the natal cards but at the same time allowing me to represent this dual character of the monarchs over the subjects of both kingdoms.
